ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the law has more often been deployed in ways that block participatory governance of resource management. Integrated management is generally viewed as the bringing together of bureaucratic and civil society organizations. It is facilitated through a local organization called the Annapolis Watershed Resource Committee, which is a multi-stakeholder management board. In 1997, Innovative Fisheries Products (IFP) was granted an aquaculture lease for 1,682 hectares of beach in St Mary's Bay, Nova Scotia. Privatization has taken on the aura of dogma in fisheries management circles, in that this paradigm has proven extremely resistant to contrary data. A grassroots political backlash against the stakeholder approach is being experienced in many settings. Those who would promote decentralization and sustainable resource use must work harder at understanding the real 'rather than imagined' barriers and impediments.
